1. Field
The present invention relates to the process of manufacturing a liquid crystal panel and a liquid crystal panel, and more particularly to the process of manufacturing a liquid crystal panel which facilitates positioning and selection of a liquid crystal encapsulation opening by means of applying a sealing material to a liquid crystal panel, and a liquid crystal panel manufactured by means of the said process.
2. Description of the Related Art
A pair of substrates and a sealing material for sealing in liquid crystal filled between the pair of substrates are necessary for constructing a liquid crystal panel for use in a liquid crystal display device.
The most common process for manufacturing liquid crystal panels used for producing liquid crystal display devices constitutes the joining of one large mother substrate on which multiple substrates are formed on one side thereof to another large mother substrate on which multiple substrates are likewise formed on one side thereof, and then cutting them into liquid crystal panels having a specific size (refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-365648 as example, hereinafter “Patent Document 1”).
The process of manufacturing the liquid crystal device and the liquid crystal device disclosed in Patent Document 1 relates to the joining of large mother substrates to each other by means of a sealing material, and are then precisely cut into liquid crystal panels of a specific size, ensuring that the surface of the cut pieces do not break as would affect the performance of the liquid crystal device. In more detail, the liquid crystal device includes a pair of substrates joined via a sealing material, liquid crystal being sealed in an encapsulating area defined by the sealing material between the pair of substrates, where the sealing material is configured to surround the encapsulating area, and includes a liquid crystal sealing portion which extends along at least one end surface of the two substrates, and an extended portion configured along the end surface of a line extending on the along-end portion, thereby facilitating a cut along a planned cross section when cutting the liquid crystal panels into specific sizes from the large mother substrates.
The liquid crystal panel is formed by joining two substrates by means of a sealing material arranged to surround a liquid crystal encapsulation opening, and then injecting liquid crystal into the liquid crystal encapsulation opening without leaving any unfilled spaces, and then closing the liquid crystal encapsulation opening, but in this case some liquid crystal may fall off during the process of sealing, resulting in the loss of liquid crystal and contamination of the liquid crystal panel. Methods have been disclosed in a large number of patent documents to prevent this problem, and one such disclosure pertaining to a liquid crystal panel body and the process of manufacturing the same made in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. H09-113920 (hereinafter, “Patent Document 2”) will be described hereafter.
Patent Document 2 discloses a liquid crystal panel body and the process of manufacturing the same, in which the incidents of loss of liquid crystal and contamination of the liquid crystal panel due to the falling off of liquid crystal during sealing are eliminated, and incomplete sealing of the liquid crystal is avoided by clarifying the relationship between the liquid crystal encapsulation opening and the display portion by using stripe-shaped spacers. In particular, Patent Document 2 discloses a liquid crystal panel body manufactured by applying a single-axis alignment process along a specified direction to at least one of a pair of substrates which are arranged opposite to each other such that straight electrodes are approximately orthogonal to each other, and at least one of which is transparent, forming stripe-shaped spacer members on at least one of the substrates, joining the pair of substrates via the spacer members, thereby bringing them in contact with each other, and filling the elongated spaces surrounded by the substrates and the stripe-shaped spacer members with liquid crystal, where the end surface of one substrate on which the liquid crystal encapsulation opening is to be provided is tilted, and the space generated at the liquid crystal encapsulation opening when the substrate is joined to the other substrate is designated as a liquid crystal reservoir with a volume corresponding to the required quantity of encapsulation, the liquid crystal encapsulation opening being arranged at the center of the liquid crystal reservoir, where the width thereof is equal to or larger than half the width of the display portion, and the striped spacers are provided within a range surrounded by lines having an angle of 60° in relation to a perpendicular line extending from the liquid crystal encapsulation opening to the display portion, and originate from the liquid crystal encapsulation opening.
There are two known methods for applying the sealing material in these processes of manufacturing liquid crystal display panels, one of which is the screen print method and the other pertains to a drawing method by means of a dispenser.
The screen print method prints a screen on a substrate indicating predetermined portions for applying and sealing liquid crystal by means of a squeegee on the substrate, while the drawing method employs a dispenser to apply the sealing material directly on a substrate.
According to the method of application by means of the screen print method, the position at which the sealing material is to be applied is fixed in advance by the screen, thereby greatly reducing the possibility of dislocation of the liquid crystal encapsulation opening used to encapsulate the liquid crystal, while ensuring that the liquid crystal encapsulation opening remains stably fixed during the production of liquid crystal panels from large mother substrates, and the method is therefore appropriate for large-scale production. According to the method of application by means of the drawing method employing a dispenser, the sealing material is directly applied to each substrate of the liquid crystal panel, making it difficult to keep the liquid crystal encapsulation opening in place, as it may be dislocated during the process of making multiple liquid crystal panels from large mother substrates, and the method is therefore unsuitable for large-scale production.
Patent Document 1 does not clearly describe a specific method for applying the sealing material. Since the sealing material is not separated from the respective liquid crystal panels during production of multiple liquid crystal panels from large mother substrates, it becomes necessary to provide for a large screen if the screen print method were to be used in applying the sealing material, and it is thus impractical to use such method. Therefore, according to the method disclosed in Patent Document 1, it may be assumed that the application of the sealing material is made by means of the drawing method using a dispenser. In this case, the sealing material is applied to many patterns defined across the entire substrate, making it highly possible for the liquid crystal encapsulation opening to be dislocated and therefore difficult to neatly fill the liquid crystal into the liquid crystal encapsulation area.
On the other hand, while the possibility of spillage of liquid crystal is eliminated in the liquid crystal panel body and the manufacturing process therefor disclosed in Patent Document 2, the substrates must be independently processed by machining which involves a complicated operation of a series of manufacturing steps and is therefore inappropriate for producing multiple liquid crystal panels from large mother substrates.